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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Jeremiah 52:15 - 52:15
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The first words, "And of the poor of the people," are wanting in Kings, and have been brought here, through an error on the part of the copyist, from the beginning of the next verse; for "the poor of the people" are first treated of in Jer 52:16, where it is stated that Nebuzaradan left them in the land, while Jer 52:15 treats of those who were carried away to Babylon. The word הָאָמֹון, instead of הֶהָמֹון (Kings), seems to have originated simply through the exchange of א for ה, and to mean, like the other, the multitude of people. Hitzig and Graf are of opinion that אָמֹון here, as in Pro 8:30, means workmaster or artificer, and that הָאָמֹון denotes the same persons (collectively) who are designated הֶחָרָשׁ וְהַמַּסְגֵּר in Pro 24:1; Pro 29:2, and 2Ki 24:14. But this view is opposed by the parallel passage, Jer 39:9, where the whole of this verse occurs, and יֶתֶר הָעָם הַנִּשְׁאָרִים stands instead of יֶתֶר הָאָמֹון. "The rest of the people of Jerusalem" are divided, by וְאֵת־וְאֵת, into those who went over to the Chaldeans, and the rest of the people who were taken prisoners by the Chaldeans at the capture of the city. The statement that both of these two classes of the population of Jerusalem were carried away to Babylon is so far limited by the further declaration, in Jer 52:16, that Nebuzaradan did not carry away every one, without exception, but let a portion of the humbler inhabitants of the country, who had no property, remain in the land, as vinedressers and husbandmen, that they might till the land. Instead of מִדַּלֹּות הָאָרֶץ there occurs in Kings מִדַּלַּת, and in Jer 39:10, more distinctly, מִן הָעָם הַדַּלִּים, "some of the people, the humbler ones," who had no property of their own. דַּלָּה, pl. דַּלֹּות, is an abstract noun, "poverty;" the singular is used collectively, hence the plural is here used to supply the deficiency. For יֹגְבִים, from יָגַב, to plough, there is found instead, in 2Ki 25:12, Kethib גָּבִים, from גּוּב, with the same meaning.